Breaking point in Thailand

[donniereadit]

How did you live for 13 months without electricity? Or, just the meter was busted, and he's calling unjust because the bill was averaged from last year?

If you are relying now on the kids bringing back 10 baht a day for rice to feed the family, who is paying the electric bill? Who is paying the rent? How are you charging the laptop? Why have you not sold the computer for food money? Not sure if it's all paid and food comes last???

As far as working goes, he's disabled in agonizing pain daily and on medication, so bouncing around to teaching jobs may not be a good option.

Hard to believe the brother would be trying a backshot with him right there in the house. Sounds like they have a tree outside and land, a small apartment would surely be cheaper.

It is possible to scissor a beard and pluck with tweezers if it comes to that. You can also sharpen a kitchen knife and shave with that. Takes time to put it together, but if your just sitting around anyhow? Would be cheaper then razors over here.

Starting @ 15:30 he has some mannerisms that suggest he may be mentally ill.

Edited December 15, 2013 by donniereadit

[maccaroni man]

The very first impression I had was how can a guy be serious about finding work in Bkk with a beard? Did he run out of razors? As I suffered through his rant I failed to here him accept any responsibility for his situation in fact all I heard him say was "it's not my fault" as other poster have written failing to plan is planning to fail. A 3,000 dollars savings after 16 yrs is proof of that.

[Jingthing]

The very first impression I had was how can a guy be serious about finding work in Bkk with a beard? Did he run out of razors? As I suffered through his rant I failed to here him accept any responsibility for his situation in fact all I heard him say was "it's not my fault" as other poster have written failing to plan is planning to fail. A 3,000 dollars savings after 16 yrs is proof of that.

Just because he's a white foreigner man doesn't mean he's a rich man. Most people in the world find 3K dollars a lot of money and plenty of them are white. Have some perspective.

Edited December 15, 2013 by Jingthing

[Sloopydee]

$3000 savings after 16 yrs of work = average annual savings of $187.

No one to blame but himself. Can't people even teach English online nowadays? I've heard it's a big thing with Koreans. I think people earn $10-20 an hour. Not a lot, but if stuck he could try to get 4-6 hours a day. 2000b a day would help him, but some people can't help themselves, can they, it's everybody else's fault.

[Jingthing]

How true just as every super rich person in the world earned every penny by their own sweat and hard work, every poor person in the world has only themselves to blame. Must be nice.

[kingstonkid]

telldem

OK From this vid i got the impression that:

A. he lost his job

B. he has a medical condition that has messed up his back which makes doing anything difficult (including keeping wife happy at night)

C. He is at least concerned and pissed off enough to complain.

his kids going to school is not a big issue. The government schools will look after that.

the razor. I am sure that his wife or mother can get him one and that the kids can get a pair of scissors.

There is o way until he gets his act right that he is going to be teaching. There are enough pissed off and bitter peopel in the world and Thai schools do not want them.

i hope he can do what he said he would and start to look for help inside.

[Ludacris]

A person who has almost no employable skills, who then chooses to have 3 children, and then is not willing to make the necessary sacrifices to find any kind of work for 2 consecutive years, has no one to blame but himself.

There's been a lot of studies about it, but poor people tend to have more kids, and people who have more kids tend to be poorer. He knew what his salary was when he decided to have child #2 and #3, and at that point his income only allowed him to save about $10 a month, so his problems started long before the flooding, the electric bill, and losing his job.

I also thought about the electric bill a bit more. He said they prorated the bill which was way to high. So let's say the year they based it on was unusually hot like he said, and his bills that year were 100% higher than normal. So the next year instead being $3000 should have only been $1500. That year he didn't have a meter he didn't pay anything, so really it was only an extra $1500 or so on top of what he normally should have paid.

So really he was only able to save $1500 in 11 years, or about 300B a month.

Jingjing, a foreigner who grew up in a country with one of the best education systems in the world who is only able to save a few dollars a month for 11 years during the prime of his working life is sad no matter how you look at it.

Don't get me wrong, I do have sympathy and feel for people who fall on tough times like that guy, but almost everyone has had tough times, including me. No matter what happens, after a certain amount of time you gotta pick yourself and do what you need to do to get your life back together. For that guy, that time was a few months after he couldn't find another job in his field that was near to his home - that's when he needed to make the sacrifices and do what was right for his family - look for work somewhere else, change careers, go back to school, learn a trade, go back home, etc.

It's disturbing that in the West people who make the sacrifices - who go to uni or trade school, graduate with debt and struggle to pay it back while cutting back on spending but still get it paid off, postpone having kids until they're more financially secure, have only 1 or 2 kids not 3-4+, don't drive new cars or have new phones, move away from friends & family for a job, etc - basically people who work hard and make the smart family and financial decisions, are the people who end up supporting people like that guy in the video.

It's a sad world when people who work hard and make sacrifices end up paying for other people who are not willing to make the same sacrifices.

And no, this would not happen to just anyone because most people would not allow themselves to remain unemployed for 2 years in a country with no safety net.

I'm glad I live in Thailand and my tax dollars are not going to support him, like they would back home. But having said that, if he wanted to chat or ask for advice I would gladly spend the time and teach him some resume writing and job search skills, problem solving skills, goal-setting, long term life and financial planning, etc.

[brucegoniners]

Sad stuff. Anyone have a job for the guy?

[kuka]

Hard to feel sorry for Judd ...he should be out walking every day to lose weight and inprove his health. Walking is Free.

I used Bar soap to wash my hair too .....I own a house and have a nice pension.

Stop Whining...you are not stuck here .....you just want a handout here.

[Jingthing]

How is he not literally stuck if he wants to leave but doesn't have the money for a ticket for himself much less his entire family? Yes in a case like this push will come to shove at immigration extension time. People like this can end up in Thai prison. Talk about stuck.

[HeavyDrinker]

The lack of humanity and smugness on display in this thread is staggering and a little revolting....but hey isn't it great when there's someone in worse financial and physical shape than we are as then we can get on our keyboards and show the world how great we are....

I think his main beef seems to be the utter lack of a support system. Not everyone has the amazing life skills so many of you seem to have. If it goes tits up you're on you're very much on your own also when it starts to rain, your fairweather friends tend to run fast and hide under their own umbrellas and stay there.

When things do start to go wrong here, they can 'snowball' rapidly. When the job and money go, the status evaporates pretty quickly too.

We once had a neighbour when we lived upcountry who when we first met him, seemed to have the perfect life. Nice house,car etc. a job he loved, and a lovely family, He was very much the 'poster boy' of the small expat community; He was the one wives would always say "why can't you be more like ****?" but within a year following his losing his job when the company he worked for ceased their Thai operations following 1997, he'd lost the lot. He couldn't make the payments on is house, his wife and kids had walked (and she was literally found on the proverbial 'pole' in Nana but didn't want to know.

There was little anyone could do for him but luckily we were able to drag him out of the pit of self-pity he was understandably wallowing in and helped him to claim his severance pay so he could start to rebuild his life which he did until his untimely death three years ago.

Rest assured when he's back on his feet again he'll hear the phrase 'You should have asked/or come to me Judd...."

Sure he should have prepared for the rainy day but not everyone does.....and this lad clearly didn't....

I hope 2014 brings more luck to the fella.....and some of the posters here should pray their own lives remain rain-free...

[up-country_sinclair]

I agree with one of the posters above about why it's not such a big deal that he has to wash his hair with bar soap. So what? It's not like he has to make himself look sharp for work. And as far as not being able to afford a razor, check out his older videos. He's got a lot of facial hair then too. And finally, Unless he's recently lost 10 kilos, I don't believe that all he's eaten for the last month is rice, green papaya and soy sauce. You can't see his whole body in the video, but from his upper torso you can see he extremely overweight.

There are people in this world who are deserving of a hand up or even a hand out. In my opinion this guy is not one of them. He needs to quit feeling sorry for himself, get off of youtube, and go find a job.

[kirstymelb101]

I generally sympathize for people who deserve my compassion. But I think this guys rant is a little over the top. To me he seek's more attention than a pre-teen high school girl who just had her first period 555+

[MILT]

Gandalf the trolls are getting wiser and more cunning. They are using the great evil social media u tube to wreak havoc on

the simple and easy folk of the TVshire and with Bilbo going off and making of all things movies. Those Baggins!

It's been months now since there was any good pipe weed in our midst.

[misterphil]

Got 1:17 minutes into it then had to close. <deleted>?

[HeavyDrinker]

I agree with one of the posters above about why it's not such a big deal that he has to wash his hair with bar soap. So what? It's not like he has to make himself look sharp for work. And as far as not being able to afford a razor, check out his older videos. He's got a lot of facial hair then too. And finally, Unless he's recently lost 10 kilos, I don't believe that all he's eaten for the last month is rice, green papaya and soy sauce. You can't see his whole body in the video, but from his upper torso you can see he extremely overweight.

There are people in this world who are deserving of a hand up or even a hand out. In my opinion this guy is not one of them. He needs to quit feeling sorry for himself, get off of youtube, and go find a job.

Fantastic!! I bet he wakes up thinking this sort of thing everyday and not about getting back on his feet.

The default Thai Visa response to a crisis. A spanking short haircut, a good bath, nice shiny shoes...and all will be fine....

Feeble. I wouldn't have liked you next to me in the trenches. You'd have been too busy ironing or plucking your eyebrows....

Just like Major Warbouys always used to say; "Nothing looks quite so bad if your creases are sharp". A real Stickler for creases was Maj. Warbouys....

[CapeCobra]

A woman's husband had been slipping in and out of a coma for several months, yet she had stayed by his bedside every single day. One day, when he came to, he motioned for her to come nearer. As she sat by him, he whispered, eyes full of tears, "You know what? You have been with me all through the bad times. When I got fired, you were there to support me. When my business failed, you were there. When I got shot, you were by my side. When we lost the house, you stayed right here. When my health started failing, you were still by my side. You know what?"

"What dear?" she asked gently, smiling as her heart began to fill with warmth.

"I think you're bad luck."

[Ludacris]

HeavyDrinker,

The friend you talked about in post #71 sounds very similar to Judd. He also was not able to take the necessary steps fast enough to stop his life falling apart after losing his job. First, like Judd your friend married the wrong girl (any girl who would end up a nana instead of getting a regular job when the family is going through tough times is the wrong girl), and he had multiple kids with that wrong girl. Your friend didn't downsize from his house into a cheap apartment fast enough, and didn't make the sacrifices needed to get any job just to get by. Whether that's teaching English, going back home, changing careers, or going back to school like a lot of people did during the financial crisis. Also, your friend did not sacrifice his spending enough during his high earning years to save for a "rainy day" as you put it. These are all choices he could have made himself without any support from anyone else.

Also, you mentioned Judd's health problems. Diabetes is typically caused by poor diet and being overweight, which are also a choice and not forced on you. His unshaven appearance is also his choice.

Basically, what you're saying is if someone doesn't work or study hard to gain an employable skill, isn't willing to make necessary sacrifices for work, chooses to marry the wrong girl, chooses to have many kids, chooses not to save, chooses to abuse his body through diet and lack of exercise, then the rest of society who have not made all those mistakes should then have to pay for that person, and not just pay for that person and their family, but pay so much as to provide them a normal middle-class lifestyle?

You are exactly why I am glad I live in Thailand...

[Soutpeel]

The lack of humanity and smugness on display in this thread is staggering and a little revolting....but hey isn't it great when there's someone in worse financial and physical shape than we are as then we can get on our keyboards and show the world how great we are....

I think his main beef seems to be the utter lack of a support system. Not everyone has the amazing life skills so many of you seem to have. If it goes tits up you're on you're very much on your own also when it starts to rain, your fairweather friends tend to run fast and hide under their own umbrellas and stay there.

When things do start to go wrong here, they can 'snowball' rapidly. When the job and money go, the status evaporates pretty quickly too.

We once had a neighbour when we lived upcountry who when we first met him, seemed to have the perfect life. Nice house,car etc. a job he loved, and a lovely family, He was very much the 'poster boy' of the small expat community; He was the one wives would always say "why can't you be more like ****?" but within a year following his losing his job when the company he worked for ceased their Thai operations following 1997, he'd lost the lot. He couldn't make the payments on is house, his wife and kids had walked (and she was literally found on the proverbial 'pole' in Nana but didn't want to know.

There was little anyone could do for him but luckily we were able to drag him out of the pit of self-pity he was understandably wallowing in and helped him to claim his severance pay so he could start to rebuild his life which he did until his untimely death three years ago.

Rest assured when he's back on his feet again he'll hear the phrase 'You should have asked/or come to me Judd...."

Sure he should have prepared for the rainy day but not everyone does.....and this lad clearly didn't....

I hope 2014 brings more luck to the fella.....and some of the posters here should pray their own lives remain rain-free...

Having watched the full thing yes the guy is on a rant, yes he may be embellishing some of facts for dramatic effect but personally I feel quite sorry for the guy but let me ask some of the smug bast@rds this ? Do you have at least 3 months money stashed to cover living expenses ? Even those on pensions ?......how long could you survive in thailand if the money stopped flowing tomorrow ? How long would it be before you younger wife did the off and shacked up with some one else ?

One suspects there are vast numbers of TV,s finest who would be on the bones of their <deleted> within the month and some are maybe commenting of the failures of this guy...who should be looking at their own lives in thailand and they may realise they are only 1 " Pay cheque" from being this guy

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[MILT]

A woman's husband had been slipping in and out of a coma for several months, yet she had stayed by his bedside every single day. One day, when he came to, he motioned for her to come nearer. As she sat by him, he whispered, eyes full of tears, "You know what? You have been with me all through the bad times. When I got fired, you were there to support me. When my business failed, you were there. When I got shot, you were by my side. When we lost the house, you stayed right here. When my health started failing, you were still by my side. You know what?"

"What dear?" she asked gently, smiling as her heart began to fill with warmth.

"I think you're bad luck."

Hahahahahahahaha! Good one!

[Jingthing]

Yeah 3K USD wouldn't wipe out most of us, but there is an amount that WOULD wipe out most of us.

[FWIW]

Yeah 3K USD wouldn't wipe out most of us, but there is an amount that WOULD wipe out most of us.

I for one would not argue that, and in general in most cases I think "there but for the grace of God go I".....but there is a LOT in this that does not quite gel...

[Jingthing]

It gels well. People decline. Nothing new in that. Maybe seeing it so raw on youtube is the part that rubs oddly.

As far as his unpleasant lashing out at the world. That's kind of a normal human response. Not attractive but understandable.

Again, it may be a somewhat newish thing in the world for people to broadcast their dirty laundry this way on the net. But again other than that part, nothing new or surprising.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Jingthing

[Mudcrab]

Being "forced" to keep 400,00 or 800,00 baht in the bank for visa extension doesn't sound like a bad idea now, does it?

Could buy food, pay the rent, power or an airfare to go somewhere to get a job. At least it gives some breathing space to make a rational decision if things do go pear shaped.

One question - how did he manage to stay here the past few years with no money? Doing something a little naughty with immigration paperwork?

[Soutpeel]

Being "forced" to keep 400,00 or 800,00 baht in the bank for visa extension doesn't sound like a bad idea now, does it?

Could buy food, pay the rent, power or an airfare to go somewhere to get a job. At least it gives some breathing space to make a rational decision if things do go pear shaped.

One question - how did he manage to stay here the past few years with no money? Doing something a little naughty with immigration paperwork?

Not all are forced to keep 400 or 800 k in the bank you can also get the extension based on a monthly income, one suspects those who can hold 800k in an account are a bit more solvent

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Ludacris]

Southpeel, maybe Judd's situation should be a wake-up call to many people on here.

Basic financial planning states that you should have a minumum of 3 months salary (not living expenses) in cash in a savings account at all times. That could cover emergency medical expenses, ticket home, etc. In a country like Thailand with no safety net or family close by, I would increase that to at least 6-12 months salary.

Also, in tough situation you could hopefully dramatically cut your living costs, so that 6 months salary should be able to stretch 8 months to a year, or even longer if you downsized your place. And that's with absolutely no income. Supplementing that with English teaching or odd/temp jobs you could go even longer, or if after a few months you realize you're not going to get another job then you have some tough choices to make - go back home, go back to school, etc.

That is the bare minimum. If someone is not able to save that, they are spending too much or living above their means, or should have never come here in the first place.

Somehow, Thai immigration has this figured out, why can't we?

[up-country_sinclair]

Yes, no one knows what fate has in store for them, and in theory everything could go south for me tomorrow. But if I were to find myself in such a state where I was relying on my children to bring home 10 baht from school so that my wife could buy rice, I can assure you that I wouldn't be spending time posting videos on youtube complaining about having to wash my hair with bar soap.

[Jingthing]

I agree starry eyed love besotted pre-expats should DEFINITELY view that video.

[Mudcrab]

He claims to have nothing. Lets have a whip round and send him to some of the villages up North. He will learn a lesson in what having nothing means,

His phone battery died - but he had enough cash to buy another one a month ago. Spare me.

[Jingthing]

Yes, no one knows what fate has in store for them, and in theory everything could go south for me tomorrow. But if I were to find myself in such a state where I was relying on my children to bring home 10 baht from school so that my wife could buy rice, I can assure you that I wouldn't be spending time posting videos on youtube complaining about having to wash my hair with bar soap.

You say that but he might might make some cash from that. Maybe some bleeding heart who saw him on youtube will actually help him! Not likely, but within the realm of possibility. Frankly he doesn't appear very employable in his emotional state and remember that foreigners are quite limited in what work they can take in Thailand.